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Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The state district prosecutor's office in Split said Thursday it has filed an indictment charging Zeljko Badza, now 63, with war crimes for killing seven civilians in Serb-held territory near the city of Zadar in 1991.
The victims included the grandfather of Croatian national football team captain and Real Madrid player Luka Modric.
Modric's grandfather, 61-year-old Luka Modric, whose name the footballer also bears, was killed on December 18, 1991 near the village of Meki Doci, near the town of Zaton Obrovacki.
According to the indictment, Badza served as the commander of a special platoon and was a member of a Serbian paramilitary unit in the town of Obrovac.
Badza and unidentified members of the unit encountered Modric, who was grazing goats near his house, shot and killed him for no apparent reason.
They then drove to the village of Meki Doci, opening fire on civilians they encountered along the way, killing six people aged 60 and over.
Badza moved to Australia ten years ago. His interrogation was requested in Australia, but this did not happen and he is currently unavailable to Croatian judicial authorities.
Football player Modric has not yet commented on the indictment. However, he has spoken in the past about how his grandfather's death strongly affected him when he was young.
" I was very emotionally attached to my grandfather. They named me after him. It's not easy when it happens to a young person and you can't understand it ," Modric told the media.
The killings of Modric and other victims occurred after the Yugoslav People's Army, aided by local Croatian Serb fighters and supported by Slobodan Milosevic's regime in Belgrade, had occupied a third of Croatian territory in 1991.
The crucial evidence in this case comes from the grandson of Modric's grandfather, who was hiding nearby at the time.
After Modric's grandfather brought his grandson some food and then returned to a location about 200 meters away, the grandson saw a Land Rover and a police vehicle coming from Obrovac, according to the indictment.
He said he heard shouting and then gunshots, followed by silence. The vehicles then drove away.
That evening, his mother brought him dinner and told him that Luka Modric had been found dead with a gunshot wound to the head, the indictment said./ BIRN
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